Recreational vehicles, such as vans, are commonly fitted with passenger seating apparatus which is convertible into a bed. It is desired to provide a seat and a bed affording utility and comfort which are not compromised by reason of the convertability betwen the seat and bed orientations. It is also desired to provide for conversion between the seat and bed orientations by simple manipulation which requires a minimum of manual effort. Further, the impose stringent standards regarding strength and stiffness. Also, the weight of the seating mechanism must be held to a minimum.
A seating mechanism whihc meets the afore mentioned requisites is set forth in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,369 granted Dec. 28, 1982. There is presently a need for such seating apparatus which is adapted for smaller vans. In particular, a convertible seat-bed mechanism is desired for a van in which the bed occupies almost all of the floor space rearwardly of the seat location. Thus, the user must be able to convert between seat and bed orientations while standing at the side door. Further, in the smaller van, the floorboard is inclined, making it more difficult to extend the third panel ofa three panel arrangement to the bed orientation.
In my aforementioned patent, a three cushion convertible seat-bed is disclosed with first and second panels for the seat back and seat bottom mounted on a seat base and a third panel pivotally coupled with the seat back. The conversion mechanism includes a quadrant plate pivotally supported on the base. The lower part of the seat back is rigidly connected with the quadrant plate and the rear edge of the seat bottom is pivotally coupled wtih the quadrant plate so that the three panels can be unfolded from teh seat orientation to a bed orientation. A first set of latches holds the conversion mechanoism in the seat orientation and are released sequentially by moving an operating handle. The same operating handle causes actuating means to thrust the third panel rearwardly toward the bed orientation as the first and second panels are unfolded. THe quadrant plate pivots durign unfolding and shifts the panels forwardly in the bed orientation to reduce the space required rearwardly of the seat. When the panels reach the bed orientation a second set of latches are latched to hold the mechanism in the bed orientation and to provide stiffening of the structure. To convert from bed-to-seat orientation, the operating handle is pulled in the same direction and the operator pulls on a strap near the juncture of the second and third panels. The movement of the operating handle unlatches the second set of latches sequentially and the second panel is pulled toward an erect position. This rotates the quadrant plate and pulls the front panel downwardly and to the rear and causes the third panel to swing forwardly. This action causes the first set of latches to relatch and hold the mechanism in the seat orientation.
A general object of this invention is to provide an improved convertible seat bed mechanism which is especially adapted for a small van. A particular object is to provide an improved mechanism for actuating the third panel from the seat orientation to the bed orientation.